House Rock Rapid

MILE 17

The river gets pushed against the left wall by debris at the mouth of House Rock Creek, which enters from river right, and there is a lot of water and some big holes near the bottom on the left.

Pretty much all the rapids in the Canyon occur where stream mouths and side canyons have deposited debris at their mouths during flash floods. Before they plugged Glen Canyon, big floods on the Colorado would occasionally clean these little rock piles out, but since 1963, the system has sort of stagnated. The big experimental floods that they are now using to try to rebuild the sand bars may not be enough to really clean the plaque out of the arteries.